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Show HILLTOP TIMES S May 8, 2014 Famous flyer remembered James Goodson, 'King of the Strafers' among U.S. aces in WWII, dies at 93 BY ADAM BERNSTEIN The Washington Post James Goodson wanted to see the world in the summer of 1939, so he boarded a ship and made his way across the Atlantic to Europe by working as a pantry boy. A few months after Goodson arrived, Joseph Kennedy Sr., the U.S. ambassador to England, urged all American expatriates to return home because of the looming threat of war. Goodson, who died May 1 at 93, booked passage on one of the last ships to leave England before Europe convulsed into world war. The vessel was the ill-fated liner Athenia, which on Sept. 3, 1939, was torpedoed and shelled by a German U-boat off the Scottish coast. More than 100 of the roughly 1,300 passengers and crew members perished before res- cue boats arrived. Goodson and other survivors were taken to port in Galway, Ireland, where children from the ship wept for their missing parents and many adults were inconsolable. One woman said she saw two children fall from a lifeboat as it was lowered into the chilly water. They were never seen again. Goodson was on the Athenia's deck when the torpedo struck, and he recalled assisting with rescue efforts as the ship listed and its lights went dark. "I went to see if there were people trapped in the main section, and I saw dead bodies swooshing around in the water," he later wrote. "I was plunged into the whole war thing, if you like, in a matter of minutes. I suppose Americans looked at the European war as something that didn't much concern them." The sinking of the Athenia — an early victim in the Battle of the Atlantic — helped turn world opinion against Germany. For Goodson, it was the moment when he decided to do his "bit to stamp out Nazism." He went on to become a leading Army Air Forces ace in the European theater, with 15 aerial kills and another 15 strafing kills of enemy aircraft on the ground. His success brought him the nickname "King of the Strafers," said Roy Heidicker, an Air Force historian. After the war, the newly See ACE I Page 10 This World War II era photo provided by the Goodson family shows James Goodson, a decorated World War II fighter pilot and former prisoner of war. Goodson, who fought the Nazis before the U.S. entered the war, flying Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires as a member of one of the Royal Air Force's Eagle Squadrons made up of American volunteers, died May 1. He was 93. The Associated Press 1,000TH CALT GRADUATE Electrical engineer earns USAF achievement BY MATTHEW J. CORREIA Course Director, Civilian Acculturation and Leadership Training RICKY LEWIS/U.S. Air Force Logan Weston, (third from left), the 1,000th graduate of the Civilian Acculturation and Leadership Training program at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., works with fellow CALT program students to overcome a Project X obstacle. Weston is assigned to the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center's ICBM Systems Directorate at Hill. A Hill Air Force electrical engineer was recognized April 25 as the 1,000th graduate of the Civilian Acculturation and Leadership Training program during a ceremony at the Air Force Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. The commander of the Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development, Brig. Gen. Robert Thomas, presented Logan Weston, Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center's ICBM Systems Directorate at Hill, with a commander's coin to commemorate the CALT program's milestone. "The Air Force values education and training. We want to make sure See CALT I Page 10 The late Tom Clancy's likely rolling over in his grave BY STEVE SALLES Standard-Examiner movie critic A cclaimed author Tom Clancy died back in October of an unspecified illness. I think we can now specify. He saw a rough cut of this movie and it was just too much for his heart to take. Not because it was too intense or exciting, but because it flushes 30 years of his favorite character, Jack Ryan, down the old latrine. Too soon? Not if you were planning to spend your hard-earned money on this noisy flash grenade of a movie with laughable Russian "moose and squirrel" villains — and yes, that's ballet master ** THE FILM: "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" STARRING: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh and CoIm Feore BEHIND THE SCENES: Directed by Kenneth Branagh ("Thor," "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"); filmed in England, Russia, Canada and the United States. PLAYING: Noon, Runs 105 minutes. MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sequences of violence and intense action, and brief strong language. Mikhail Baryshnikov in a literal drive-by. Chris Pine, making the best of a bad script, takes up the mantle of the famed CIA analyst in this reboot that doesn't actually follow any of Tom Clancy's books. He's recruited by Kevin Costner to keep an eye on the Ruskies, who are investing huge sums of money in Wall Street in order to destroy the American economy. I think we're doing just fine on our own, thank you very much. He's not supposed to tell anyone that he's working for the "Cornpany," but his doctor girlfriend (Keira Knightley) keeps bugging him, thinking he's having an affair or some such nonsense. So he's off to Moscow on a "business trip" and right away he's being followed and shot at and he responds like he's James freakin' Bond. Cool Contributed photo Left to right: Chris Pine is Jack Ryan and Kevin Costner is Thomas Harper in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. Costner shows up to tell him, "You're no longer an analyst. You're now op- erational." I can see Pine thinking, "Wait! I don't remember signing up for this?!" See MOVIE I Page 10 |